Linden resident loves to raise puppies for the SA Guide-Dogs Association
Linden resident is raising her 9th puppy for the SA Guide-Dogs Association.
April 10 was National Hug Your Dog Day though one Linden resident needs no excuse to do this.
Joe Kiggell and her family have been raising puppies for the South African Guide-Dogs Association for seven years and is now raising their ninth puppy for the group.
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“Lyra is a great dog and we have a lot of fun together,” Kiggell said of her latest Labrador.
“All dogs are different. Some are sombre and some are bouncy. It has been fun to work with different personalities and see them matched with their new owners.”
Saying goodbye to a dog is not easy, but Kiggell said it has become clear to her how people in need really must have the dogs, so she has learnt selflessness.
“We cry when we say goodbye, but a blind person living alone, for instance, actually needs the dog to function. Seeing this happen is very rewarding.”
The association turns 70 this year, and puppy-raising manager Alida Pansegrouw thanked Kiggell and people like her for their invaluable contribution.
“We can’t do what we do without people who take the dogs home, train them and build relationships with them,” she said.
“The dogs learn to socialise and behave; when they go to their new owners, we see the people grow in confidence and have a better quality of life.”
She said puppy raisers learn so much about raising a dog well that they end up applying this to their own dogs.
The association’s head of public relations, Pieter van Niekerk, said there are a few puppies in their ‘puppy block’ looking for voluntary families to foster them for approximately 14 to 16 months.
“This is for conditioning and socialising training to become dogs with jobs, making a difference in the lives of a differently-abled recipient with either a visual impairment, a physical disability or a child on the high-support autism spectrum,” he said.
International Guide Dog Day is also on April 26.
Details: SA Guide-Dogs Association info@guidedog.org.za; 011 705 3512.
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